Revisiting the Tower in the Park

Those wonky kids at Interboro are developing research on NORCs or Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities into a book on the design of cities for aging populations. Among the interesting findings: As it turns out, the oft-maligned tower in the park/superblock model so commonly associated with the shortcomings of Corbusian planning and the alienating dimensions of Modernism have frequently evolved into places where the social fabric of the city is preserved and enhanced for that aging population. Far from being spaces of isolation, these complexes seem to be incredibly effective at maintaining and strengthening social ties for a demographic will represent about one-fifth of the U.S. population by 2020.